Rusty bedded down in the barn, along with Andy, Preacher Webb, and Lieutenant Ames. He was awakened in the night by Andy shaking his shoulder. Andy whispered, “Something wrong.”

Rusty pushed up onto his elbow, peering into the darkness and seeing nothing. “What?”

“Don’t know. Spirits, maybe.”

“Spirits! More likely you heard an owl hoot.”

He had noticed that owls made Andy nervous. Comanches were wary of them.

He heard horses running. The sound came from beyond the corrals. He flung his blanket aside and pushed to his feet. His first thought was an Indian raid.

Ames awakened. “What’s the matter?”

Rusty hurried to the barn door to look outside. He saw nothing amiss, but he was fully alarmed.

He saw a dark figure lurch from the shed and fall to his knees, moaning. Rusty ran to him. Sergeant Bailey rasped, “Tell Lieutenant Ames. Them prisoners have got away!”

CHAPTER

SEVENTEEN

Exploring with his fingers, Rusty found the point of a nail protruding through the post to which Pete Dawkins had been tied. Webb’s lighted lantern revealed frayed fragments of rope indicating that Pete had rubbed his bonds against the nail until he had worried his way through them and freed his hands.

Sergeant Bailey’s head was bloody. He told the lieutenant, “Private Cotter was on guard. Must be he went to sleep, or maybe Dawkins was just too sneaky for him. Busted him over the head with that shovel yonder. Then he busted me before I could get my rifle.”

Ames gave vent to strong Yankee profanity. “I ought to’ve stood guard on them myself. Damned little sleep this shoulder has let me get anyway.”

Bailey lamented, “Him and his partner, they got off with our guns.”

Private Cotter would never stand court-martial for losing his prisoners. He was dead.

“Probably never knew what hit him,” Rusty said.

Bailey rubbed his forehead and looked at the blood on his hand. “Thought he’d killed me too, like as not. He didn’t know how hard my head is.”

The lieutenant clenched a fist. “That’s two of my soldiers he owes the army for.”

The commotion had aroused James Monahan. He had hurried down from the new house, buttoning his britches. He found that the fugitives had run the extra horses out of the corral, but the animals had gone only a few yards and stopped. James easily drove them back into the pen.

He declared, “Pete owes this family too, more than he could pay in a hundred years. I’ll get him, Lieutenant.” He looked at Rusty. “You goin’ with me or not?”

“I’ll be ready in two minutes.”

“It’ll take me five. Preacher, how about you saddlin’ my dun horse for me while I run back to the house and get my gun?”

The lieutenant protested, “It’s a long time until daylight. You can’t see the tracks.”

“I know the first place he’ll head for. If me and Rusty don’t find him there, at least we’ll have that much advantage when the sun comes up.”